At Night's End
by ImNaturallySuper
Summary: When Dr. Alex Reid's hospital comes under fire from a mysterious source, she finds herself drawn again and again to a mysterious man who seems to be bent on saving her life from the growing destruction, even if it's the death of him.
1. At Night's End

The bright lights in emergency room two only added to Alex's already pulsing headache. _Stay on top of this Alex,_ she chided herself, as she hung the patient's records in the clipboard at the foot of the bed.

She threw what she hoped was more than a half-hearted smile in the young woman's direction before slipping back out into the hospital hallway. She checked her watch for the third time this hour and frowned at the hands on the small watch face. _Could this night be going any slower?_

It was already past midnight and that only left another two hours on her rotation before she could crawl into a hot bath and soak away the day she was having. Scratch that, the day that she was _still_ having. A lot could go wrong in a hospital at 12am on a Saturday morning. She stifled a yawn and headed towards the front desk for her next patient file.

She'd already lost one life today, held the man's heart in her hands as it stopped pulsing. She had only been sitting in and observing a standard transplant for a fellow surgeon when it had happened. In the blink of an eye he was gone and there was no getting him back. It was days like this she really wished it was easier to understand why some slipped away so quickly while others lingered on, unwilling to leave no matter the odds stacked against them. If only she had stayed longer, worked on him harder, not given up when she did, not called in his time of death without another moment just to be sure. She rubbed at the grit behind her eyes absentmindedly and tried to shake the feel of his empty gaze on her face. It always come down to how many more seconds could you have stayed with them, never knowing if the next one will bring them back to you or not. A doctors job is a gamble, throwing the dice down on life after life hoping you can win this one this time, hoping this time you won't lose it all.

Shooting a glance down the hallway Alex tried to keep her eyes from rolling as her gaze briefly connected with Hope Zion's third year surgical resident Dr. Maggie Lin. If possible the girl looked as if she may have things under control for once. Alex made a bee line for the ladies room on her right swinging past the doors with relief. Maggie was one last annoyance Alex couldn't afford tonight. The girl couldn't be more than thirty but she acted fifteen years her junior and hounded Alex with mundane questions more often than naught. A brief bathroom excursion was not something she could be blamed for. Not tonight. If Maggie had more questions, there were a slew of other doctors willing to fill her void.

Alex ran the cold water and splashed it in on her face and neck dragging her hands over her neck and clasping them tightly at the back trying to work out the kinks. She pulled her face up to the mirror and tried to will away the dark circles she saw forming there.

"Two more hours Alex. Just two," She urged her reflection. Suddenly the image in front of her swayed, instantly setting off her internal panic sensors but her face reflected none of this. Tremors shook the tiles beneath her feet and cracks in the ceiling pushed plaster down around her in puffs of dust. Just as fast as it had arrived the tremors vanished. Alex paused for a mere second before bolting off into the hallway her mind ablaze. _An earthquake? In Toronto?_

"Impossible." She breathed. Earthquakes were practically non-existent in Canada, of this magnitude at least. Small quakes rattled parts here, or tremors shot across from other quakes further south but there was no major damage to city infrastructure ever reported. Not like what she saw in front of her now. The hall was littered with debris, most likely from the ceiling. She side stepped a patch of broken tiles and shattered glass and tried to recall the sensation of the quake. How had it done this in such a short amount of time? She rushed along the corridors glancing left and right into rooms hoping no patients were injured. Doctors rushed past her brushing her coats in a flurry, intent on the same path but in the opposite direction. She caught a glimpse of Joel, the hospitals new orthopedic surgeon helping a young woman to her feet from the other side of her chair at the front desk. Smoke pilfered the air as if something somewhere was on fire but the sprinklers had yet to go off. She yanked her dark blue scrubs up over her nose in an attempt to avoid choking on the thick air in the now demolished lobby. This wasn't right, the tremor she felt couldn't have possibly done all- She stopped short of rounding the corner to the ER. The biggest eighteen wheeler she had ever seen lay on its side in the center of the hospital, tearing apart everything in its path to the hallway where she now stood. The site was a horrible one, something you could only imagine. Destruction rained everywhere around her leaving the ER virtually unrecognizable. Bodies lay motionless in all directions with no hope of survival. Alex raced to each one either way, pressing her shaking hands against the skin at their throat, praying for a pulse in any one of them. She tried screaming for help but the air around her throat constricted leaving no room for anything but a strangled gasp for fresh air. The smell hit her then; burning flesh. She knew that smell, and always wished each time she was forced to deal with burn victims that she did not. It clogged the senses and peeled away all reason. She staggered back from the last body in the giant room. She wished now she hadn't been counting. Thirty-four dead. She had lost thirty-five people today. A tear escaped her unblinking gaze and Alex swatted it away.

_Get yourself together Ried, you are a doctor damnit._ She turned from the wreckage and bolted out the small opening by the side of the trucks back wheels, but she didn't even make it into the street to look for survivors on the road. A hand shot out clasping her around the waist and dragging her backwards against the side wall of the hospital. The stones and mortar gave way like putty under her and her assailant's impact but it didn't seem to faze whoever had grabbed her. In an instant the figure was in front of her drawing back a bow and flinging arrows out into the darkened street.

The scene before her was something out of a nightmare. People ran for their lives down the Main Street. They clawed over each other in desperation to get to safety from an unknown force. She peered over as far as she dared, keeping a good six inches away from the man in front of her and his weapon of choice. He shot arrow after arrow faster than she could blink and none seemed to be hitting anything she could see, they just disappeared into the distance, swallowed up by great clouds of smoke and fire surrounding them. Alex tried not to press further into the wall that was obviously not as stable as it looked. In a flash he was gone, running off into the crowd his bow still at the ready. Alex tried to compose herself but failed, years of every situation possible rushing through the doors of her hospital had hardened her to chaos and devastation, but this…she was out of reach of her own comprehension. What was happening, who to help, should she herself be running off into the fray trying to save her own life? She had no answers and questions flew at her at break neck speeds.

She peeled herself from the wall and raced off into the street in a moment of decision. But just as soon as she reached the mass of fleeing bodies she was snagged by the arm and pulled down behind a car, no sooner did a missile sound over her head landing in a blaze of fire not 200 feet off from where she crouched, hands over head. She pulled herself up as he did and gave a small nod of appreciation. Did her voice box even work right now? He stood a good 5 inches taller than her and was dressed for action. Dark green leather was strapped over his chest in the style of a vest and his bow hung loosely from his left hand. She tried not to stare, but he had seemed to appear out of nowhere, dressed like a superhero and too handsome to be real. She blinked again for good measure trying not to seem uncomfortable with how close he stood over her. He briefly touched a spot on her arm with his leather clad hand and she followed his eyes there, realizing she had a good sized gash in need of at least fifteen stitches. Funny, she hadn't even felt it. _When had that happened? _

His gaze deepened on her almost as if in question of her thoughts but all he said was, "Take care of yourself out here. It's a war zone." A small cocky grin rubbed off on her and she found her lips twitching at his smile. Yet in another second he was gone, running off into the crowd bow at the ready, flinging arrows into the unseen. She backed away frantically, turning to run back towards the hospital, hoping for any form of reassurance that this was actually unfolding before her. They would need her in there, no matter the outcome, no matter the questions; she had a job to do. She stopped at the entrance and flung one last glance back over her shoulder into the chaos on the street in the direction he had taken off in. She told herself it was the confusion that had her heart thundering for another glimpse of him but she'd be lying. Whoever he was, or whatever he was, she didn't care. She just hoped beyond hope he was actually real. Because she couldn't stop herself from wishing he'd somehow find his way back to this side of the destruction. Just one more time.


	2. It Was You

Clint's arrow arm was numb again. Pain was a thing of the past and with it had gone all reason. He had reached the point where if he didn't actively tell his arm to pull another bow from its quiver it wouldn't be moving at all. For the first hour pain had throbbed up and down his bicep. No training had prepared him for this.

He still remembered the sound of Nick Fury's voice over his satellite phone; it held an urgency he wished now he had ignored. The avenger's team was more than half here this time, missing one green giant with an anger problem who had been detained and tortured in an unknown location, and one blackened widow he would be lucky to never see again.

Natasha had pulled on his heart strings one too many times. His insides only felt empty now over every situation she had manipulated to make her a victim in their torrid half twisted relationship. She was anything but helpless but her words had bitten to the bone over her role in his life.

He was a warrior first, always would be. She didn't get that part of him wouldn't back down to put her first. It couldn't. He would never be able to live with himself if he did. But how quickly she fell free from his mind and his heart only told him a secret truth he harbored all along. He had never really loved Natasha Romanoff.

Time and breath seemed to escape from Clint's vicinity as he spotted yet another turbine styled aircraft heading back in the direction he had come from. It sailed through the air at break neck speeds and fear shot through him as he saw it close in on the hospital not a mile from where he stood now.

Before he could blink a trick arrow flew from his fingertips towards the ship. An explosion rocked the night air around him and sound seemed to be on a tinny wavelength for a full moment after the ship landed in pieces on the steps leading up to the hospital's main entrance.

He sheltered his gaze from the ongoing blaze and prayed Hope Zion's inhabitants would survive a blast or two more tonight. He hated to think he lingered down the street at the edges of the worst of the attack was because of _her_. But he knew better than to lie to himself in his own mind.

Her warm gaze filled every other thought since he had first saved her life. The way her soft brown hair had been pulled free of its pony tail and lay scattered about her face. The way it had fallen into her bewildered eyes as she took him in. He had wanted to stop and gently tuck it behind her ears. He had wanted to touch her, grasped at any excuse to do so. He felt the need to linger near her and he couldn't explain it.

Life and death drenched the streets before him. As far as Fury knew and reported team the attacks had come from an alien race called the Wakanda. Sources were still bare and chaos littered the northern hemisphere in small segments reaching from NYC across the west and up into Canada. Three major cities had been hit by rebel forces and their technology was surmounting the abilities of the avenger's team.

Clint refused to acknowledge the sweat shining off his forehead and continued telling his shooting arm to move. He glimpsed a flash of their newest member he had briefly met on the chopper over. Scarlett Witch, she had called herself, a mutant who had the power to manipulate probability through a hex sphere. He wasn't sure he wanted to see what she was truly capable of but he was witness to a sliver of it now as she slowed the momentum of a surrounding group of warriors on the ground and took them on one at a time. No one had said it but Clint could tell she had never played for the good team before and he could only hope she stayed on her side of the fight. He didn't want her near that hospital. He threw a tentative glance back at it for what seemed like the hundredth time and forged ahead into the fray once more.

By the end of this night he would wash his mind of that brunette with the startling eyes, because like it or not, it would be filled with too much death to recover any good memories from.

* * *

Alex's mind screamed at her from every different direction possible. Bodies lay in piles with nowhere to put the dead. She helped a frantic and anxious Maggie lift another body to the back of the hospital.

"Alex!" She screeched, blood covered her clothes and stuck in her short brown hair. "This ones alive!" She called from across the room where she had just darted back to. Pain leaked through her adrenaline based frenzy for a second and Alex wondered how she herself would survive this night. She pulled herself together for another round of devastation and threw her mind into the moment once more.

The victim lay motionless and unconscious on a blood soaked gurney they had been using over and over. Cleaning the instruments seemed beyond anyone's ability or time in the rush to keep people breathing. Blood staunched and stopped flowing suddenly from the young man's chest wound and Maggie sat back on her heels a look of horror on her face. The man had died instantly.

Alex leaned in grasping Maggie arm in a desperate attempt to not lose her only solace in all the surrounding horror. "Maggie!" She shouted. "Stay with me now! We are going to get through this! Do you hear me?"

Maggie merely nodded and helped yet another body onto the ever growing pile.

Hours seemed to slip by, body after body, one in what seemed like a hundred being carried up to the ICU while the other ninety-nine lay nameless and claimless on the piles in the adjoining ER rooms that weren't yet pulverized.

Another explosion rocked the hospital and Alex clutched at the table in front of her for reassurance that she was still attached to something. Her fingers bit into the sides of the soft gurney cushion and she welcomed the pain of it.

Another shock shot through the place, this time extinguishing half the lights in the hospital. Alex swore under her breath letting panic take over. Darkness would be their undoing. And just when she thought the worst had happened fate took a turn for the worse releasing the strengthening beams at the ceiling and sending an ICU room full of equipment down onto the space around her.

Plaster hit her before anything else did and she grit her teeth in anticipation of an impact that would most likely end her here and now. The last thing Alex expected was the firm and nearly suffocating grip of an arm around her waist dragging her backward and through a glass window. She only briefly touched on the thought that they were in fact no longer on the ground floor at this part of the hospital. It was more than evident a second later as her and whoever was attached to the arm apparently unwilling to let her go, flashed downward two stories towards the grass below. The impact should've knocked the wind from her but her rescuer hadn't moved position, taking the hit and cushioning her from the force of the fall.

She scrambled to the side, ready for the death of yet another victim playing hero beneath her. But her eyes collided with that of her actual hero of the night. Her mystery man the last few hours of turmoil had convinced her was a myth. He rolled to his feet as if the blow had not been more than trifling thing and Alex gave a glance to the shattered window up over the hill.

This part of the hospital sat on a rather serve incline and while it was still considered the first floor, it's set of steps did lead the way back into a twenty foot drop off from each room window.

She gaped at the man before her, blinking away her astonishment. "I should thank you but I can't seem to get the words out." She said in a half whisper.

His eyes narrowed on her frame as if scanning her for injuries. She followed his gaze and led it back to her face, half smiling at her own shocked state.

"You just did." He mused. A crack of what sounded like thunder sounded in the distance and Alex jumped at the sound. This was the first time she had been back outside the hospital since she had seen him last. She felt like she was losing her mind to the ensuing chaos.

He crossed the distance between them then and reached for a strand of hair thick with blood that had fallen across her lips in the wind. Like a reprieve from the suffocation surrounding her she felt herself take in the vision before her with more clarity as he slide it back into the mass of tangles onto the top of her head.

"I've wanted to do that for what seems like days." He said. Flexing his hands in his gloves he turned from her then and Alex couldn't tell if her lips moved or not when her mind screamed. "Wait!"

When he turned on his heel and cocked a brow at her she flushed at the answer to her own musings. She _had_ said it out loud. _Oh god. Breathe, wait don't breathe too fast, passing out is not an option right now._ Silence sliced the air between them but he didn't turn to leave again. Merely stared at her as if drinking in the sight of her. Her heart leapt at the way his eyes moved over her. Blood and sweat and tears stained her appearance yet he was looking at her as if she was something more that the mess she knew she was. As if she was something beautiful.

A minute ticked by and Alex prayed it was only a minute and not the hour this moment felt like. _This is the part where you say something Alex. Say anything._

"Thank you." She blurted out trying to relieve the tension she felt the need to break up.

He smiled and she could swear the world lit a bit around them. The tension eased from her shoulders at the sight and she wished she had made him smile under different circumstances, she could've actually enjoyed the feeling it gave her.

"You said that already," He teased, and she could've sworn she felt heat staining her cheeks.

She paused, not knowing what to say to this man who had rescued her yet again and seemed to fly in and out of a surrounding war she couldn't even begin to fathom.

"Why?" She asked suddenly as if a dawning had come over her that he had risked his life for her repeatedly time and again when others had been left where they lay, not a hope in the world for them.

He only shook his head for a second as if the question baffled him as much as it did her.

Letting himself take a half step forward he paused, then in a rush backed up further from her. He shook his head again quickly and his features set into a serious mask of hopeless thoughts and constrained emotion. He let a look of worry slip over his features for a second and she shared in that feeling with him over a shower of sparks from the street lights in the parking lot to their left.

Yet neither broke their stare.

A half smile touched his lips again and it disappeared as soon as it had appeared. She watched as he seemed to allow his feet to move towards her once more and even though he never touched her his presence filled every ounce of space she allowed herself to exist in. She tried not to move any closer, telling herself there was a place and time to give in to her very real fantasies about this man and this was the last one on a long list she could ever allow. But he broke their trance a second later with three simple words she would find herself going over and over again in the coming days. Three words she had never expected to hear, but three words she knew now she had been hoping to hear ever since she had asked him _why_.

"It was _you_."


	3. Is It Real?

Alex tried to block out the gaze that now swept so raptly over her frame. She cursed the circumstances so swiftly unraveling her mind. She couldn't think. Did she even want to?

Somehow night had slipped into dawn breaking over the recess of her mind. Soft pink light inked the horizons and brought a new horror to the devastation in the streets. Her superhero-without-a-name didn't look away from her, as if the surroundings were nothing new to him, nothing to behold with the same level of pain and confusion she was now.

When her gaze returned to his it was filled with questions she was afraid to ask. Thankfully he didn't make her.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you. Do you want me to tell you?" He ventured softly, barely being heard over the collisions of metal and flesh in the distance.

Clint could hear the receding battle and knew that for the foreseeable future the Avengers team was winning the fight for this hemisphere from the mysterious Wakanda. It had been too long since he could allow his mind a quick rest. He did so now at what seemed like a cost well worth it.

He snatched at the radio bud in his left ear and broke reception to Fury's team. A second later he tried to drudge up regret for it but couldn't. The woman in front of him made a small movement with her lips but no sound came out. He tried not to smile at her distress. Gods she was beautiful when she did that. He wondered briefly if she even knew how often she moved her lips without making a sound. He imagined her whispering to him that way and tried to not let it affect him. Wrong place, wrong time Clint, he chided himself.

Allowing one last glance over his shoulder he reached for her and dragged her off towards the back of the hospital. She went willingly as if there were no other choice but to follow his lead.

"Where are we going?" She asked suddenly as if waking up.

"Somewhere not here." He said abruptly. "Radio chatter has the enemies retreat to the north as of thirty minutes ago. I didn't want to believe it till now. But it holds some truth now doesn't it?"

He scanned the almost empty now streets and her eyes tried to soak in the impossible. As if it couldn't possibly happen so fast. "In war, a battle can end as quickly as it began. All it takes is one-sides combined knowledge of defeat. Fortunately for you, that side wasn't ours."

Alex tried to wrap her mind around what he was saying. _War? In Canada?_

"Since when is Canada at war with a country that can launch sophisticated aerial assaults like that?" She sputtered.

He cocked a brow at her in response and continued on. This time she hung back from him. "Okay, now I want to know," She began breaking free from his grasp. "Now I want to know who would dare attack any city this close to the United States. Who would have the technology to demolish us in a matter of hours?"

Clint tried to think of something clever to say but couldn't in front of her accusing glare. He inwardly sighed. Why did he care so much what she thought of this world he was so much a part of? Why did he care what she thought of _him_?

"Because they come from a world where our technology is laughable."

She frowned and he wished he didn't have the task before him of explaining other worldly impossibilities to a woman of science and practical medicine.

"Are you trying to say-" She stopped herself from completing the absurd thoughts rampaging through her bruised and tired mind. This man was a lunatic. He ran around town fighting "other-worldly battles" with nothing but a bow and arrow and he expected her to swallow the same cool aid he'd obviously spent his life drinking with his morning waffles?

"Oh God, oh God," She said pinching the bridge of her nose, if her head had been exploding before it was absolutely going to send her into shock now from the massive pain. "This isn't happening. I need to get back inside. They need me." She babbled at him backing away quickly.

A solid second later transformed her world. A crash that should've exploded the object itself into a thousand pieces before her eyes merely puffed up rubble and dirt unearthing a man shaped robot. The sound had practically cracked her eardrums yet he had barely flinched. Alex tried to not let a second scream be heard as the machine took two solid steps forward and reached upward to its face clicking a button that slid a mask down over its jaw, revealing a man inside. Alex blinked; half mad already, willing to let her now open mind to lay itself bare to yet another possibility.

The man in the maroon and gold iron suit stepped forward and tapped his ear in what seemed like mock frustration. "Clint, buddy, I saw that move. Fury's taking a cue from his namesake over you off-lining yourself in this. We finally have the little bastards on the retreat and you are here what? Making moves? Tsk tsk dude, get your ass back online before I tattle on it." He winked, aiming his half-cocked grin at Alex. She started at the bizarre affection but thought better of defending herself in this instance.

The cyborg re-tapped his ear and with a shot took off into the sky again.

Clint tried not to laugh at Stark's half-hearted threats, tell on him? Not likely since he harbored one too many lingering-look-transgressions on behalf of Tony via last year's celebratory victory party. One word to Pepper and Tony'd be in the pits of his own private Hell for many a week.

Alex roved her gaze back to where the arrow man stood and tried to reassess him from the point of view he was painting for her. The term hero fell free from her heart when she thought of him, yet her mind tried to not dwell on the impossibilities of what her own vision screamed.

"Aliens?" She asked aloud, the word rolling over her tongue as if a foreign language. Her hero grinned at her and the sight was blindingly sweet in the face of all that was broken.

"Bingo." He affirmed.

"Believing you is a bit against my entire…well, belief system." She paused as if in thought. "Aliens." She said again, testing the stretch of what that word would mean in her new world.

He allowed her the moment. Her brows knit together in puzzlement and he couldn't help but let it affect him. If Stark was flying about giving scoldings the worst of the fight must be over. Let Fury stew a bit over him being MIA, he deserved the break. He drudged up a bit of his not-so-proud-of-past Clint and tried him on for size. Deserting the team for a bit of Q&A with the beautiful Dr. Reid? Yes, past Clint had benefits he hadn't allowed himself to access in quite some time.

Alex watched warily as he sheathed his bow and arrows onto his back but refused to put his ear bud back in. He frowned at her as she absent-mindedly made a gesture at her ear giving away what she was thinking. As if in answer he picked up the wire and detached the bud completely, tossing it into his right front pocket.

"I can have a chopper out of here in two seconds flat. I need an hour long shower and a week's worth of down time. You will be safe if you come with me." He stated lightly. It wasn't a question, more like a passive order. Was he used to giving orders to women? She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"I need to get back inside, the people, they need me." She was repeating her earlier excuses she knew but they were important ones.

He nodded off to the left just in time to see dozens upon dozens of choppers fill the early morning sky, hundreds of small black figures repelling from wires beneath them to the ground below.

"I work for a team that will take care of everyone, trust me; you won't find better military doctors. You did your part Dr. Reid, paid your dues, and did your time. Let my team take care of the rest." He paused as if unsure of saying the last bit on his lips. "Let _me_ take care of _you_ now."

Her heart leapt at the words. He was a stranger, someone on any other day she wouldn't have trusted yet she found herself drawn to his promise to look after her. Hadn't he been doing that all along? She trusted him completely and couldn't explain why. Maybe she was just too tired to put up a good fight, but maybe she didn't want to either.

Before she could stop herself her hand was enfolding in his and the feeling took over her exhausted bones, soaking her in the pleasant warmth of surrender. He touched a spot on her forehead and another on her chin before reaching into his side pocket for a sat-phone.

Within what seemed like seconds a chopper arrived at the location and she hopped aboard beside him letting the smoke filled air cool the sweat at her temples. She found herself frowning over the easiness of her situation in contrast to the blood streaked Pollock painting below her line of vision. She tried not to look away, tried to stay in the moment and allow herself to believe the truth behind what was happening to the city she grew up in. She tried to think if there was anyone she should be missing. Anyone she should be calling desperately in hopes they survived, and tried not to let the pain of knowing there was no one, get to her. Every familiar face that belonged to her life was in that hospital. Maggie, Joel…Melanda, her only friend it seemed sometimes. All had been last seen in the frenzy below alive and even though as frazzled as her now, alive. She imagined the men below swarming the hospital and taking control of the impossible situation, sewing up the broken threads this night had torn into each of their memories.

She looked at her own future and tried to imagine a moment past this one but couldn't.

An hour later she was half yanked from her safe seat inside of the chopper. They had taken across the skies east into what could only be America and she wondered who this Clint was that he could cross the border in a chopper without so much as a glance from the border patrols. Caring had half left her in the aftermath of all that had happened in the past 24hrs.

He led her down into the darkness of a stairwell and through what seemed to be too many doors possible for only one building level. Why all this security? Did it make her feel comforted or fearful? Her anxiety couldn't decipher it. The quiet thrummed around them as he flicked the lights on in the room they now entered revealing a beautifully stark apartment loft with clean lines and zero clutter. It was an apartment out of a fortune 500 magazine that screamed, 'This is me, this where I reside, aren't I posh?'

She restrained her mind from laughing too much at the thought. Of course he was rich too. It wasn't enough he was handsome, strong and brave.

Her apartment was nice yes, okay very nice, but she could've stuffed hers into his kitchen. The space was enormous and almost threatening.

He tossed off his gear and crossed to the refrigerator drawing out two water bottles and tossing her one. She felt half embarrassed when her shaking hands almost didn't catch it but covered it up with a smile.

"Point two second until the shower to end all showers. " He said more than half to himself but she relished in the possibility as well. Even going so far as to wondering about who would get to go first and almost not even caring that her mind touched on the guilty thought of them sharing so she wouldn't have to wait. It was his house, he obviously would go first.

"Feel free to utilize the guest bathroom down the hall to the left." He prompted, "You don't have to wait around for me." Alex blushed inwardly; of course he had two bathrooms in this mansion loft of his, why had she let herself think about them sharing space beneath the piping hot showerhead of one? She must be losing the last half of her brain thinking on a rational level.

She tried not to let her appearance into the forefront of her thoughts but she couldn't quite help it, she felt it now as much as she had once been oblivious to it. Dried blood was caked into her hair and tugged at its roots with every swivel of her neck and sweat mixed with debris and dust inched its way up under her soiled lab coat. She was dying to be free of every layer of death she had worn tonight. Waiting was no longer an option.

What seemed like a lifetime later she peeked her head out of the steam filled guest bathroom, her freshly pink scrubbed skin hitting the cool air with appreciation.

She clung to the towel tightly around her breasts and hoped she'd not actually have to proceed to waltz about her strange hero's house in search for him. She tried clearing her throat hoping he would, what? Rush to her rescue with a pair of fresh clothes at the ready? She mentally rolled her eyes at herself and crept back into the bathroom. She'd sleep in here if she had to. It was a thousand times better than the pile of rubble her own apartment was most likely in.

She sighed at the thought. Her whole life had gone up in smoke. Her job, her home, even her friends she had left behind, for what? A nice shower with a good-looking guy who had saved her life one too many times? Maybe she could convince herself it was only for the shower, the shower was worth it, the man, well, that was only something she hoped was worth it. She stomped her foot in frustration. _Gods! Stop thinking about him Alex! The man saves your life a couple times and you are suddenly on a one track mind to everything Clintville?_

Clint…she rolled the name over in her thoughts. The man in the cyborg suit had called him that. It suited him. Straight forward and to the point yet held an air of mystery, like his name itself was half finished.

A knock came then, making her heart race faster than she'd have liked to admit.

"You alright in there? I have a robe if you'd like it." He said, opening the door half way through the second sentence as if she'd said come in already. Had she said to come in? She blinked back the possibility and snatched at the robe he proffered on extended arms. His smirk did things to her she wasn't yet ready to admit to.

"Thank-you."

"No problem. Are you feeling better?" He shifted in the doorway, looking at ease against the frame in fresh clothes. She envied his stance, and the security of his layers, which happened to be an all black cotton tee underneath yet another pocket filtered vest and pants that seemed to be made out of a starch polyester. He looked ready for round two of the waging war to the west.

"Are you leaving?" Alex found herself asking.

His lips parted into a full smile at her question, as if he saw into her mind and knew she didn't want the answer to be yes.

"I wasn't planning on it." He replied casually.

She let go of the breathe she had been holding and chided herself for being so obvious. Snapping out of it she gestured for him to give her some privacy and quickly dressed in the thin cotton blue robe when he did. The material clung to her and wasn't the usually thick towel-like fabric most people used after a shower. This was a house robe, and the sheerness of it only made her aware of the fact that she wore not a stitch under it.

When she joined him in the living area he turned and gave her a once over that boiled the blood beneath her skin. Trying to avoid his eyes she shifted awkwardly from one bare foot to the other. He merely moved to her side with unfounded warmth in his rapt gaze.

"You can sit. I bet you are tired."

When she hesitated he lifted his hand to her clean skin and begged himself not to give in to touching her. If he had thought she was beautiful before she was nothing short of stunning now. Her hair a tangled mess of half circles falling over both her shoulders, was inked almost black with moisture. Her deep green eyes held a mass of brown within them that darkened as his hand touched the warm skin on her cheek. He stilled his muscles as not to frighten her off from this moment. The soft pink in her lips beckoned him but he resisted with everything he had. He hadn't saved her for a brief dalliance; she didn't even seem the type. Yet something about her called to him again and again.

He wished above all else to know what she was thinking but here and now he'd settle for her first name. He'd read her last name off her blood spattered name tag about her neck yet Dr. Reid didn't connect with the image he drank in of her now.

No, he had the feeling this side of her was something she didn't often reveal to just anyone. This bare faced, vulnerable version of the doctor who had selflessly pitted herself against the slaughtering brought on by a force she hadn't understood. She was brave in a way he felt proud of without knowing why.

"What is your name?" He asked, hoping not to sound too stupid that they were well beyond a place of names and yet he was asking anyway.

She smiled and her small straight nose crinkled at the sides. He couldn't control himself anymore, whatever words lay behind her lips would have to wait. His lips captured hers in one swift motion, bringing his other hand around her firm waist dragging her closer to his touch. He only had a second of regret before she melted beneath him, giving in to the moment.

The world spun beneath Alex and she let it circle away. His lips moved gently over hers but his grip showed no sign of relenting to the pace he set upon them. His arm was like a vice, secure and strong, warding off any threats and deepening the warmth spreading through her belly. Whispers of butterflies fluttered inside her chest then were dashed away as his tongue met with hers briefly. Nothing had ever felt so right in a world of everything that seemed so wrong. She let him take point and matched his rhythm and pace falling victim to his overpowering presence.

She grasped at his arms searching for anything steady in this upside-down palace and her fingers half bit into the steel of his biceps. She muffled a moan as his hands raked into her hair pulling it from her face and sent scorching kisses down her jaw line. Her eyes rolled backward in pleasure, the adrenaline of the moment taking over any thoughts of rest.

Yet a second later he broke the contact and stared dazed down at her in his arms. She tried to shake off the moment but couldn't claw her way out of the quicksand his touch had put her in.

"Your name…" He prompted, as if he didn't wish to proceed without knowing it. She knew she should cling to it, her password that got her out of any possible mistake she was about to make yet she found herself giving it up to him all the same.

"Alex." She breathed, her lips moving enticingly over the word. "My name is Alex."

He groaned at her breathy voice, needing to feel the solace she created all around him again. And this time when their lips met it was something they were both expecting.


End file.
